We’ll get to recapping last night’s Isles/Sabres tilt later, but after another loss I figured Isles fans could use a little pick me up this morning. This classic Rangers video from 1979 is sure to put a smile on any Islanders fan’s face…and quickly end up tormenting the inboxes of all your Ranger fan friends. While the Isles were busy starting their dynasty in 1979-80, the Rangers were busy, ummm….shakin’ their money maker in Sasson Jean commercials. Nice moves boys. Oooh-la-la indeed!
Of course it seems the spirit of 1979 is still strong with the current day Rangers - with last year’s Shanny Dances With The Trannies incident and Jagr dressing in drag, it’s only a matter of time until Avery and Lundqvist are caught at the Blue Oyster Bar.
Well it had to happen sooner or later, you didn’t really expect the Isles to sweep all 8 games from the Rangers this season - did you? An outplayed and outhustled Islanders team fell 4-2 to the Rangers last night at the Garden. The Isles lack of offense continues to be an issue with two or fewer goals in 11 straight games now. One of last night’s Islanders goals was actually put in the net by a Ranger player for us, thanks!
The Isles powerplay which had gotten off to a fast start has disappeared - 0/4 in the first period and 1/5 in the game. While the Rangers were 2/5 with the man advantage and outshot the Isles 31-24. The Ranger$ $tar$ decided to showed up for this game with goals from Drury, Gomez, and Jagr.
With Sean “The Pest” Avery out, Ryan Hollweg took up the role of Rangers A-Hole last night threatening to rip the stitches out of Radek Martinek’s face.
Martinek, a non-threatening defenseman, received 15 stitches Wednesday night after being cut by a skate blade during the Islanders’ 3-2 shootout win over Ottawa.
“Give Martinek credit, playing after an injury like that,” Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. “In this game, you have to have some respect. When a guy like Hollweg tries to scratch an open cut on someone’s face, that’s not professional. It’s not a classy thing to do.”
“He said he is going to take my stitches out. I think that was stupid,” said Martinek, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound defenseman.
Martinek added that no damage was done, but said he had never seen a player act in such a way.
“No, no. Never, never,” he said. “I think he could show a little bit of respect, but he didn’t. I cannot respect him.”
Stay classy NYR, stay classy. After 4 games in the first two months of the season, these teams won’t see each other again until March.
Isles head down to Atlanta Saturday night. I’ll be in VT snowboarding, hopefully Tommy can hook you guys up with a recap Sunday morning. Let it snow!!
Aww shucks…I’m sure Islander fans and tough guy Brendan Witt are devastated at this news. Sean Avery is out for tomorrow night’s game as he undergoes wrist surgery.
Rangers forward Sean Avery will undergo surgery Thursday on his left wrist to repair injuries sustained in a fight and when he was struck by a puck.
There was no immediate announcement on how much time Avery will miss. The surgery is scheduled to take place shortly before the Rangers play the New York Islanders at home on Thursday.
Thanks to the guys at HockeyBooks for posting this one-sided fight between Clark Gillies and Ed Hospodar of the Rangers. Hospodar goes down like a bag of dirt.
“Gillies gave it to him, boy.”
How sweet it is. The Isles have become a real pain for the Rangers these days, winning all three contests this season. Unfortunately, I missed the game. Was on a flight returning from Florida and JetBlue didn’t have it. Instead I watched the Titans hold Brandon Stokley enough in check to get me a playoff clinching win in Fantasy Football. Go BigFastMustache!
From reading the papers this morning it seems like it was a real battle in the Garden. Great to see DIPietro get his 100th win (is Brodeur looking over his shoulder yet?) and newcomers Vasicek and Fedotenko contributing with goals. Even better to see the Isles beating on Avery. Apparently Witt and DiPietro both took shots at the Rangers’ pest. The chippy play should make for good drama all season, not that Isles-Rangers is ever lacking in that department.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the game.
The NHL All-Star Game fan ballots are now online. Vote for DP and Captain Guerin, the only Islanders listed on the ballot. I voted for Blakey too.
It appears the NHL is trying to avoid the Rory Fitzpatrick mess from last year. “To Nominate A Player Not on the Ballot, Select One From the List” it says. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but if someone is on that list…then they are on the ballot…aren’t they? So there are no write-in votes allowed this year.
Making matter worse are the inclusion of 10 NY Rangers players on that list, including super-studs like Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg, but NO OTHER ISLANDERS?!? WTF?! Hello? No Comrie (leads the team in scoring), no Campoli (#10 in NHL defensive scoring), or anyone else wearing Orange and Blue. Well at least they left Sean Avery off the list.
[Update] From Uni Watch, here are this year’s All-Star jerseys. How lame and boring can jerseys get? Now you know.
[Update 2] As pointed out in the comments by reader Mike and also over at Islanders Outsider, the voting website has been updated and 15 Islanders have been deemed “Official NHL Approved Write-In Candidates”. Good work men!
You can now select Sean Bergenheim, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Chris Campoli, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko, Bruno Gervais, Andy Hilbert, Trent Hunter, Radek Martinek, Richard Park, Miroslav Satan, Mike Sillinger, Andy Sutton, Josef Vasicek, and Brendan Witt. What, no Dubie?
See, what would be best here is if a giant hole opened up on the ice and no one ever heard from these two clowns again. Our least favorite Maple Leaf and Ranger, Darcy Tucker and Sean Avery, went at it last night. Actually, they almost went at it before the game when Mr. Oh-So-Classy Avery whacked Blake’s shinguards…in warmups. I saw this replay while out last night and was very confused as to who to root for.
You read that right. The Islanders overcame two third period deficits to down the Rangers 3-2 last night at the Coliseum. The win gives the Isles an 8-4 record and a tie for first place with the Philadelphia Flyers with 16 points. The Flyers have played one more game than the Isles.
While first place is nice, it’s a little early in the season to get excited about it. But it’s not too early to get revved about a come from behind win against a hot Ranger team that had won four straight. It was also nice to see the Islanders bring Henrik Lundqvist back to earth. The Ranger netminder had posted seven straight periods of shutout hockey and had notched four shutouts in 14 games this season. Not last night.
For the second time in as many games, Miro Satan put the Isles ahead to stay with a late goal. The Islanders also got goals from Trent Hunter and Ruslan Fedotenko.
The game featured some outrageous goaltending on both sides. Rick Di Pietro put on a show in the third period, denying a barrage of Ranger chances to keep the Isles in the lead. This was truly a team victory.
And while it’s still just Nov. 7, you can never discount wins over divisional rivals. Last night’s victory was big. The Islanders are rolling. They need to keep it up.
